26 Nov (NATURALNEWS) – The push is on to get as many newborn babies as possible vaccinated for rotavirus in the U.K., as health officials unveil a new vaccine program that they claim will reduce hospital admissions for the stomach bug. BBC News reports that the U.K. Department of Health will begin administering the oral drop-based vaccine Rotarix, which is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), to children beginning in September 2013, even though the controversial vaccine has previously been found to harbor viral fragments of a swine virus known as porcine circovirus 1, or PCV1.
Following the lead of the U.S., Australia, and several other countries in Europe that have already adopted the use of Rotarix in small infants, British health officials are currently talking up the alleged benefits of the vaccine in order to gain public approval for its widespread introduction. According to official claims, the vaccine program, if implemented as intended, will cost the public health system in the U.K. the equivalent of nearly $40 million a year, while only purportedly saving it about $32 million a year.
But missing from the conversation is any talk about the very serious side effects of Rotarix, which just so happens to contain live attenuated virus. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), infants given Rotarix are twice as likely to develop intussusception, a potentially-deadly medical condition in which the intestines become blocked Based on the figures, the risk of dying from these vaccine complications is likely higher than the risk of dying from rotavirus, which is relatively low.
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Tags: FDA, National Vaccine Information Center, NVIC, PCV1, porcine circovirus 1, Rotarix, rotavirus, U.K. Department of Health